Some Orange County property owners now will be be able to demand mediation in foreclosure cases

February 26, 2009|By Rene Stutzman, Sentinel Staff Writer

Orange County residents being sued for foreclosure have gotten help.

Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr. Wednesday signed an order giving them the right to demand mediation.

The order means that instead of running into a roadblock when they call their mortgage companies, hoping to work out a solution, they'll be able to sit down with someone and negotiate.

The number of foreclosures in Orange County has increased more than six-fold since 2004, according to numbers from the clerk of courts. Last year, foreclosures totaled more than 26,000, a record. This year, they're on track to beat that.

"The volume is enormous," said Circuit Judge Frederick Lauten, head of the civil division of Orange Circuit Court which handles foreclosures.

Wednesday's order should help some property owners save their homes. It also should help lenders by breathing new life into some nonperforming loans.

"We came up with this because we want the lender and borrower to sit down and see if they can't work something out," Lauten said. "We've heard enough anecdotal evidence that 'I've called the bank, and I can't get anybody to talk to me.' We thought it was time . . . ."

Perry's order does not require mediation, but it lets borrowers know that if they demand it, they'll get it. It also allows judges to order it.

The order applies only to owner-occupied homes in Orange County.

A group of Orlando-area lawyers, working through the Orange County Bar Association, also has offered help.

David W. Henry, with the firm Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist PA, has organized a group of mediators willing to take on these cases for a fee that would pay them about one-third of what they normally charge.

"I was trying to find a way to give back and help," Henry said.

Last summer, Seminole County's chief judge, Clayton Simmons, issued a similar mediation order, saying distressed homeowners needed to be able to negotiate with their lenders -- not be put off until a hearing or auction.